Chapter 127: Rejoice

Upi asked his son mullet to escort the fleet full of grain and various supplies up the river back to Daning, leaving the sturdiest ship for himself, and lived in Aunt Du's shop with about twenty of his most capable men.

A few days later, a leather-clad general with two attendants swaggered into the Liuchen shop. Aunt Du, who was sitting at the counter, had a flash in her eyes, and hurriedly stood up to greet her: "The little one will ask the general to be safe." ”

The general's entourage shouted majestically: "My general is the Dai staff general of the Fubiao battalion under the Fuzun standard!" ”

When Aunt Du heard this, she was about to kneel, but Dai Shan waved her hand aggressively: "Boss Du is polite, we have mutual friends, and we can be regarded as our own family." ”

Aunt Du still sighed deeply as if she hadn't heard it: "The villain doesn't dare." The villain has seen General Dai. ”

Dai Shan nodded: "Thank you Boss Du." I was going to buy some pickled lamps, incense candles, etc., for military use. I heard that you have all the goods here, so I came here to take a look. ”

Aunt Du hurriedly hunched her waist and stretched out her hand to make a "please" and said: "Thanks to Lord Dai, I can afford to look down on the villain, and the villain has thanked the adult first!" General, please use tea inside, and the goods will be put out slowly, not in a hurry. ”

Dai Shan said "um", turned his head and instructed the two attendants: "You guys are waiting here." "I followed Aunt Du into the back house.

After taking a sip of tea, Dai Shan took out an envelope from his arms: "This is the list, Boss Du, take a look." ”

Aunt Du respectfully took it with both hands, opened it and glanced inside, but did not take out the letterhead, and confessed: "Please wait for a while, Lord Dai." Dai Shan nodded, and Aunt Du took the envelope and walked out of the room.

Straight back to her bedroom, Aunt Du took out a string of keys, picked one up, and opened the lock of the cabinet embedded next to the bed. There were dozens of fifty-two taels of ingots in the cabinet, about a thousand taels. Aunt Du took all the silver out, and then picked a few times on the wall of the cabinet, and then pressed it down, with a click, the bottom of the cabinet bounced open to reveal a dark grid, inside is a small iron box, the bottom of the iron box is also connected to a thumb-thick iron chain, firmly connected to a large piece of iron stone buried in the depths of the house foundation - the iron ingot is four or five hundred pounds heavy, if there is a thief in the room, the ordinary people who steal those silver and floating wealth will never think that there is a mechanism in the cabinet, even if they see through it, unless the government raids it with great fanfare, No one can steal the iron chest quietly by themselves.

The iron box is not big, but it is very heavy, and Aunt Du has a little difficulty carrying it out, and it looks like a solid iron lump is cast. Except for a gap on one side of the box, there is no mechanism to be opened, and it is almost impossible for someone who does not know how to open the box. Aunt Du turned the iron box upside down and carried the chain to the bed, and then pushed it on the side, and slid the thick cover open—there was a groove in the cover, and a small iron ball was embedded in it. When the iron box is being placed, the iron ball falls on the junction between the bottom and the side wall under the action of gravity, and there is also a groove of just the right size, and the iron ball will lock the cover firmly on the box, and you Hercules will not be able to open it. Re-buckle upside down, and the iron ball falls into the groove of the cover plate under inertia to complete the unlock, and the cover plate can be pushed open.

Aunt Du took out half of the letterhead brought by Wupi from the box and spread it on the table, and took out the other half from Dai Shan's envelope - this was a piece of paper, which was deliberately torn apart by Du Duan. The two half-page dogtooth teeth were perfectly closed, and Aunt Du then separated and reversed them, merging the two neat straight edges into one place, and piecing together a bright red "Du" character seal, and the seal was up and down, and several ink marks randomly outlined by Du Duan also coincided together: the identity of the person who came was verified*.

Aunt Du, who returned to the living room again, bowed her hand to Dai Shan: "General Dai has been waiting for a long time. The first time he was dealt with, the general was not to blame for being slack. ”

Dai Shan, who had already gotten up when he saw Aunt Du coming back, changed his smile and bowed back: "Second Master Du is polite!" When they met for the first time, Dai had to make a false appearance in front of outsiders, and the second master was not to blame. ”

Aunt Du smiled and said, "I know, General Dai has thought it through." My own family, don't say it! The goods are ready-made, when will General Dai come to get them? ”

Dai Shan replied, "Tomorrow." The day before yesterday, the goods in the river had just been distributed, so the brothers had a night's rest. ”

Aunt Du responded, and Dai Shan quipped: "The silver money will be prepared tomorrow." The second master must be careful, if there is anything wrong, Dai can't afford to pay for ten skulls! ”

Aunt Du grinned: "General Dai don't worry!" Tomorrow, we will give the general a credential, even if something goes wrong, it has nothing to do with the general. I also have to trouble the general to help get a proclamation for the silver boat, and the friends on the road will sell the Du family a little face, for fear of encountering trouble with the official who patrols the river. ”

Dai Shan said with a smile on his face: "If you want it, you have to get it, and you don't need to talk about it." The official flag and documents of Fubiao will be handed over to the second master tomorrow together with the silver two. Let's send two more brothers to take a hitchhike with us! ”

Aunt Du is also sincerely happy: to sell the hidden more than one million catties of illicit salt, how could it take four or five months in the past, but now it is good, in the name of military funds, it will be packaged and sent to various places by Fubiao, and it will be sold in the whole province in the blink of an eye...... I have to urge the big brother to expand production as soon as possible!

Dai Shan carried two fifty-two taels of ingots, and said goodbye to Aunt Du with joy, and the two Suihu were also stuffed with two taels of silver bills by the tent of the six Chen shops, and they were all happy.

In the early morning of the next day, more than 100 people sent by the Guizhou Yamen carried salt picks from Liuchenpu and sailed straight to Guandu in Guizhou, where more than 20 official ships with the banners of Yiling, Yidu, Jingzhou, and other prefectures, prefectures, and counties were already waiting there.

Soon after, Upi led the two Fu Biao generals out of the city, and walked to the red painted boulder a few days ago, and gathered the sixty or seventy Fu Biao soldiers who were waiting there as porters, and before noon, more than 100,000 taels of silver were smoothly delivered to the ship of the Wu boss.

Almost at the same time, on the river thousands of miles away from Guizhou, more than 40 large ships lined up in a long line, carrying huge hard sails and slowly going upriver under the impetus of the river wind, winding four or five miles away. There were more than three escort ships with the Huainan Shuiying flag at the bow and tail of the fleet, oh, not only that, there were more than twenty such escort ships, scattered in the middle of the fleet, but compared with the big ships on the side, they were not so eye-catching. When the civilian boats and fishing boats in the river saw this situation, they all avoided it from a distance - everyone knew that these salt boats of the two Huai could not be provoked, and if they were overturned, you should not mention it, and if you buckled a big hat of river thieves who "robbed official salt", none of the family could live!

With a blanket on his lap to block the wind, Lan Zhongbin half-squinted and crossed Erlang's legs, lying comfortably on a brocade chaise longue in the shipyard, the folding fan in his hand was beating up and down with the sound of silk and bamboo, and someone was babbling and singing in the spacious warehouse - there was a troupe on this boat!

Lan Zhongbin is the younger brother of Lan Bofeng, a giant businessman in Lianghuai, and the second leader of the Lan family in Yangzhou. This is a relaxing trip that has long been familiar, in addition to the official salt, Lan Er Ye also brought two percent of private goods - the rules and etiquette of the two Huai officialdom, the blending of the Yanjiang Prefecture Mansion, and the upper and lower points of the Huguang Hanyang Mansion, all of which, relying on the salt price of the official card alone can only be a flat account, who is rare to spend that amount of effort? In addition to the more than 5 million catties of Huai salt, there are nearly 6,000 stone private goods in the cabin, including lacquerware, ironware, especially the four treasures of the study, lake pens, Hui ink and rice paper, which are in short supply in Huguang. About half of them are the things of the Lan family, and the other half are the favors of the adults in the two Huai officialdom - excluding the cost of freeing long-distance transportation people from eating and feeding horses, since no one will check the salt ship, the various centigold that is several times higher than the freight, and the card points along the way that make ordinary merchants want to cry without tears, will naturally all become profits for adults.

This road is calm, especially in recent days, the wind direction is very favorable, the wind is also moderate, not far in front of Huangzhou Mansion (now Huanggang), Lan Zhongbin is in a very good mood: to get there, sail another hundred and fifty miles is the end of this journey - Hanyang Mansion. Since Huangzhou Mansion, the river surface of more than 100 miles is full of familiar people who can't be more familiar, even Master Li Teng of Wuchang Mansion, the Lan family has also helped bring goods, and the officials of other state capitals are even brothers who pat their shoulders.

The fleet was moored at anchorage outside Huangzhou Mansion one after another, and it was already afternoon time. According to the usual practice, Lan Zhongbin planned to get off the ship to greet several old acquaintances such as Li Yongnian (Zi Yunjiu), Tongzhi Sun Qineng (Zi Guodong), and other old acquaintances - they must have known the news of the arrival of the fleet for a long time, no need to ask, the banquet in the palace should have been almost prepared.

Second Master Lan walked to the stairs and was about to go down to the deck to change boats to go ashore, and inadvertently looked out of the window, and saw hundreds of officers and soldiers in bright armor gathered on the shore, and couldn't help but wonder: I think these two ran to the dock to meet us! After many years of dealing with each other, there is no need to ask for such a battle, this is in the name of rewarding the officers and soldiers who protect the salt ship, and changing the law to ask for more silver......

When Lan Erye raised his eyes and looked at the river, he was taken aback again: there were fifty or sixty official ships with various flags of the sailors sailing towards the anchorage, and after a while, they were moored on the outside of the fleet, forming a tight protective circle.

Lan Zhongbin smiled bitterly: In broad daylight, do you need to put up this array? It is not that it asks for money—ten taels for each ship, and then it will be scattered for five or six hundred taels of silver, plus for those on the shore, a thousand taels!

The Huainan Water Battalion named guerrilla Gou Sheng, who was escorting, had already arrived on Lan Zhongbin's boat at this time, and was ready to accompany Lan Erye to the Huangzhou Mansion. Seeing Lan Zhongbin coming down, he leaned forward and said, "Second Master Lan, there are only a dozen boats in the Huangzhou Mansion that can drive the river patrol, where did so many pop up all of a sudden?" The last general thinks something is wrong. Look at the flag and the eyes are tight. ”

As he spoke, several warships approached here, Lan Zhongbin squinted his eyes and recognized it for a while, and smiled contemptuously: "Well, there is a 'You' character written on that flag, it's a newcomer, no wonder." I don't know where to cobble together these boats, thinking that I have requisitioned all the civilian boats along the river, and I have pulled all the guys who can move to make up the money and beg for money. That's it, the thought is in the first place, let's sell him face. Hum! ”

Gou Sheng looked at the few boats that were struggling on the river and slowly approaching, and said, "No! It's definitely not a civilian ship! Second master, look, the planks of these ships are out of shape! It looks like it's all new. There is only one reason for the deformation of the new ship: there is a big problem! Freshly cut timber is the case without air drying. If it is a civilian boat, how can anyone on the water not understand this truth? Depending on the size, each boat can carry thirty or forty people, but if you look at the depth of the draft, it seems that it has more than doubled, and there must have been a lot of water in the cabin! The last general is sure that in two or three months, these ships will fall apart! ”

Hearing Gou Sheng say this, Lan Zhongbin also felt a little strange. However, I had no fear in my heart, so I simply stood on the boat and waited for them to come. At the beginning of the founding of the country, the grandfather degraded the status of the merchant to the point of no return, but at this time it has long been very different, Feng Menglong's "Yu Shi Mingyan" has a folk proverb saying: a first-grade official, a second-grade Jia. There are so many friends in the officialdom, not to mention, Lan Zhongbin himself also has a fame.

* This is a very simple but almost perfect way of verification by the ancients. Start by tearing a piece of paper from it at random to create staggered canine teeth. Then turn the two halves upside down, put the original left and right straight sides together, stamp or write a few words at random at the seams, and hand them to the two parties who need to be verified. Because the rice paper fibers are criss-crossed, it is almost impossible to make the two halves that are torn apart at random tightly, and then by piecing together and restoring the seals and characters sewn on both sides, it can be foolproof.

Du Duan asked Aunt Du to hand over all the millions of catties of private salt to the Fubiao officer he had never met, and Aunt Du had to verify the identity of the person who picked up the goods in this way.